ASUSU elections off to a big start
Let the madness begin.
The ASUSU election season starts next Wednesday with 50 candidates running for a variety of offices, including eight for president.
“It will be chaotic, but that’s what’s fun about elections,” presidential candidate Staci Meacham said.
This year may be especially chaotic with such a large number of candidates.
Elections Committee Chair Lisa Watkins said it’s unusual to have so many candidates, especially for president.
The total number of candidates jumped from 35 and presidential candidates from four last year. Also, last year the executive vice president ran unopposed, while this year there are three candidates.
It’s hard to tell exactly what prompted the increase in candidates, but Watkins said it may be because people see candidacy as the first step to involvement.
But others have suggested different reasons.
“It shows that a lot of people either liked what ASUSU did this year and want to get involved, or they didn’t like it, and they want to get involved and make a difference. I’m not sure which way that goes,” presidential candidate Peter McChesney said.
Presidential candidate Zachary Ames agrees but also sees another motivation.
“It’s the mentality of our generation to go big or go home. We live in an age of titles, where it’s number one or nothing,” he said.
Others, including Meacham, believe it has more to do with a passion for the university and a desire to get involved.
Several of the candidates are already involved in ASUSU, and others are names people should be familiar with.
Many students may remember Ames from last year, when he ran for president.
Five candidates were involved in ASUSU this year, including Meacham, McChesney, Brittany Webb, Jacob Roskelley and Kyle Milne. Meacham is the administrative assistant for ASUSU, McChesney is the HASS senator, Webb is the science senator, Roskelley is the public relations director and Milne is the arts and lectures director.
The last three, Webb, Roskelley and Milne, aren’t running for president. Webb is running for Science senator, Roskelley for executive vice president and Milne for programming vice president.
With the exception of Webb, the rest of the candidates with ASUSU experience are running for a position higher than the one they already occupy.
Although it may seem like it, Roskelley said there is not a natural tendency to want to move up. He said it has more to do with people getting a behind-the-scenes look, formulating their own ideas and wanting to make a difference.
Meacham agrees. She said her ASUSU experience motivated her to run so she could “keep the ball rolling.” It also has something to do with having an “amazing” experience, she added.
Along with a number of candidates having ASUSU experience, there is a wide variety of students running for all the positions. Just looking at the presidential candidates, there are political science, sociology, economics, math and speech communications majors.
“With such a diverse group of candidates, every student can find something that they really like … so everybody will be benefited,” Meacham said.
Roskelley said the large number of candidates and the diversity will allow students to pick the candidate that really represents what they want to see.
But with the large number of candidates, there also comes some concerns.
For the candidates, especially those for president, the number of candidates means the votes will be spread out. McChesney said this is especially true in the primaries, which will be the biggest challenge because the votes will be split eight ways.
For the students, the number of candidates makes it hard to be informed about each one.
And being an informed voter is one thing everyone seems to agree on.
“I think with any election there’s always an element of popularity contest that gets in there,” McChesney said.
Ames agrees, and he added, it’s important to balance the creativity of a campaign with the platform.
Students will get a chance to see the creativity and hearing the platforms when campaigning begins on Feb. 28.
-dabake@cc.usu.edu